MO-2003-207

At about 0400 on Monday 5 May 2003, while steaming towards fishing grounds to the west of Fiji, the fishing vessel "Solander Kariqa" suffered a fire in the domestic refrigeration space resulting from maintenance involving oxy-acetylene cutting. The crew fought and contained the fire, which was not totally extinguished until about 2000 that evening. There were no injuries to the crew, but had they been unable to extinguish the fire with the limited fire fighting equipment available the vessel may have been lost with resulting injuries or fatalities.

Safety issues identified were:
· insufficient fire fighting equipment
· poor management of the fire fighting effort
· no procedures for "hot work" on the vessel
· nsufficient properly certified crew.
Recommendations were made to and the Director of Maritime Safety and the Chief Executive Officer of Solander Fisheries to address these issues